PICS: Tourism a major casualty of deadly China quake

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Jiuzhaigou, China - Tourism may prove one of the bigger casualties from a strong earthquake that struck a region of southwestern China whose natural beauty and Tibetan heritage draw millions of visitors each year.

Twenty people were killed by a 6.5-magnitude quake on Tuesday, 8 August, in Sichuan province - a comparatively low toll thanks to the area's remoteness, for a country prone to some of the world's deadliest quakes.

Despite its remoteness, the local government says the park hit its maximum daily capacity of 41 000 visitors just days before the quake, after luring 1.56 million tourists in 2017's first half.

More than 30 000 tourists were in the park when the quake struck, heavily damaging at least one hotel. At least six visitors and two Jiuzhaigou residents were among the quake dead.

Chinese paramilitary police carry relief supplies on their way to an earthquake-struck zone in Jiuzhaigou, China. (Photo: AFP)

Most damage from the quake appeared caused by landslides, and harrowing reports emerged describing people being killed or injured by boulders smashing into buildings and cars.

More than 30 000 tourists were evacuated by late Wednesday, 9 August. National tourism authorities have issued their highest safety warning for Jiuzhaigou, telling tourists to stay away and travel agencies to cease organising trips amid recurring aftershocks and landslides.

Tourists wait to be evacuated after the earthquake in Jiuzhaigou, China. (Photo: AFP)

Ghost towns

Normally bustling Jiuzhaigou hamlets like Zhangzha now resemble ghost towns, according to AFP journalists who visited on Thursday, 10 August. Although quake damage appeared minimal, hotels and shops were boarded up or deserted along rubbish-strewn streets.

Tourism had proved a local godsend as China's growing middle class increasingly catches the travel bug. Residents say many who grew up as poor farmers now have cars and some can even afford second homes in big cities.

"After tourism came here (around 2000) our quality of life improved so much," says Yang. "Now I suppose we'll have to go out elsewhere and find jobs."

Jiuzhaigou will be scarred

Quake-triggered landslides ripped swathes of green forest from mountainsides, leaving huge gashes, in some places tumbling into the glassy waters and turning them brown, aerial footage by Chinese media shows.

One of the park's best-loved spots - Sparkling Lake - suffered "severe" damage, park authorities say, after one of its banks collapsed, draining a section of the lake nearly dry.

The outlook is worsened by government policies, say Songpa Tsanduze, a Tibetan woman in her 40s who runs a Zhangzha shop.

She says authorities had used traditional Tibetan land for a reforestation project. "There are trees on our land so we can't farm it. We have no choice but to go into business. But now, after this earthquake, I don't know how we'll be able to feed ourselves," she says.

See footage of the disaster at the tourist spot:

Memories of devastating 2008 earthquake

The tremor stirred memories of a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake in similarly mountainous areas of the same region in 2008 that left 87 000 people dead or missing.

The 2008 quake cost Sichuan - home to several of China's famed panda sanctuaries and renowned Tibetan monasteries - "tens of billions of yuan" (several billion dollars) in tourism revenue, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

"Now it's in the government's hands. They'll have to assess whether the buildings are safe before letting tourists back here," says a hotel cook Zhou Quan, a member of China's dominant Han ethnic group.